Aperture: The Universal Binary Edition is (definitely) shipping

Apple will most likely be shipping their first major update to their …

According to reader reports on the Ars Mac Forum, Apple's website this morning briefly made mention of Aperture 1.1 shipping today for US$299:

Aperture 1.1, a significant update to the revolutionary all-in-one post production tool for photographers, runs natively on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The update features dramatically improved RAW image rendering and a new set of advanced RAW adjustment controls. Likewise, it delivers impressive speed gains on any Mac. At a new lower price of $299, Aperture is within reach of anyone shooting with a digital SLR camera. [Apr 13, 2006]

As of this posting, there is no mention of this news. However, the Apple store is down, so we're pretty certain that something is up.

Apple will most likely be shipping their first major update to their professional photography application is out with fixes for RAW decoding and a number of new features. Most notably, 1.1 will now run natively on Apple's Intel Macs! So what, exactly, is new in Aperture 1.1? First up are the fixes to the RAW decoding routines. The first Ars Technica article on Aperture 1.0 by Dave Girard spoke very poorly about most of the RAW algorithms:

The problem is not as apparent in the mid tones and highlights, but the artifacting and noise is still worse overall. I managed to reduce it with the noise reduction filter but it still looked "junky," like a bad scan and the bluish tones in the shadows were still there. I couldn't remove those since there is no selective color or curves adjustment in Aperture. I tried many times with different images to produce better results, but even with the high-end source files from the tutorial DVD, it still produces poor images when compared to the Adobe plug-in.

Sounds good, right? I guess you'll just have to wait for the next review to know for sure. Apple highlights a few other new features including RAW Fine Tuning, a new Color Meter, Enhanced Export Controls, and a bunch of miscellaneous improvements:

In addition to all of the above, Aperture 1.1 also offers dozens of additional reliability and performance improvements in such areas as image export, metadata handling, onscreen proofing, histogram, cropping, printing, web output, Query HUD, and others. You’ll find performance improvements particularly noticeable in keyword searching and when using the Lift & Stamp tool.

Apple also notes that 1.1 now handles Photoshop files with layers. No more flattening! Yay! If you've not read our two part series on Aperture 1.0, check those out: Ars Technica Aperture 1.0 Review Part 1, Part 2. If the news that leaked this morning is accurate, then a new price of US$299 is great. The real question is how much are the people who ponied up for 1.0 going to get burned when it comes to the upgrade price?

Update: Yahoo! Finance posted a PR before they were supposed to. Tsk tsk!

Aperture 1.1 delivers significant performance gains on both PowerPC-based and the new Intel-based Macs providing photographers with desktop level experience on the new MacBook Pro and delivering a powerful entry-level photography workstation on the new Intel-based iMac®. Performance tests on a MacBook Pro have shown that common repetitive workflow tasks such as Lift and Stamp and searching are processed up to 4x faster on a MacBook Pro than on a PowerBook® G4.

Aperture 1.1 is available immediately as a free Software Update to current Aperture 1.0 customers. In addition, early adopters of Aperture 1.0 can claim a $200 (US) coupon redeemable at the Apple Online Store by visiting http://www.apple.com/promo/aperture/ as a thank you for their support.

How nice of them! What are you early adopters going to buy with your free US$200?

Update: Apple store is back up. The price is confirmed at US$299, .EDU price us $150, and the shipping time is apparently 3 to 4 weeks. What? Readers are reporting the update has appeared in Software Update.